


With Nights Like These, Who Needs The Days?

by terramous



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [6]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Firefighter Carlos Reyes, M/M, Paramedic TK Strand, Whump, slightly to the left of medical accuracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:01:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25279699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terramous/pseuds/terramous
Summary: Carlos’ eyes were wide as he processed what he was looking at. "Huh. It looks worse than I thought."TK's eyes trailed up to meet the wound itself, a short laceration about halfway up Carlos' bicep, no more than two inches long but bleeding steadily. "No kidding."
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775494
Comments: 11
Kudos: 174
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star ▶ Carlos Reyes / Tyler Kennedy "TK" Strand





	With Nights Like These, Who Needs The Days?

**Author's Note:**

> it's been like twenty years but I'm back with part three of this au!!!! :-)
> 
> For the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt: gunshot wound

“Why don’t you ever drink with us, TK?” Nancy asked, it was an innocent question but TK couldn’t help the way his shoulders tensed. There was a blush high on her cheeks but her gaze was steely as she focused it on him with far more intensity than was necessary.

“What do you mean?” TK gestured to his mineral water. “I’m drinking.”

A bar wasn't really TK's ideal scene. At one point in his life he loved the atmosphere of bars and clubs, but when he was sober and trying to stay that way, he'd rather just be at home. But his team had insisted he come with them and his father promised to keep an eye on him.

It was loud and TK was already nursing a pulsing behind his eyes, but he wasn't very good at saying no to people. Especially not his father or his captain. 

Both of them had approached him throughout the day to invite him. Michelle first, when the two of them were stocking the ambulance and as TK offered her a "I'm not sure, I'll think about it", he probably set her on course for reinforcements.

It was at least a little quieter away from the dance floor and tucked away with Tim and Nancy. Michelle was rowdy enough for all four of them but she was off most likely chatting the ears off of Carlos or Owen. She was definitely confident on the day-to-day, but once mixed with alcohol, she was a force to be reckoned with. 

“You know what I mean." Nancy gestured to her drink as if to reinforce her point. "We’re all supposed to be letting loose after a monster shift, we’re at a bar, that means alcohol.”

“I just prefer not to drink."

This is exactly what he had wanted to avoid, the questions. He didn't want to get into why he wasn't engaging in such a mundane and expected activity of him.

That was the problem with the team choosing to wind down and spend time at a bar. It was almost an obligation to have something to drink, so it attracted unnecessary attention when TK didn't.

“You, TK Strand, have more self control than I could ever dream of.”

“And more than Cap, that’s for sure,” Tim pitched. “I think she’s trying to drink Captain Strand under the table.”

TK groaned and buried his face in his palm. “That’s another reason I don’t drink. I have to take him home.”

“Do you like living with your dad?”

“It has its ups and downs. We haven’t lived together in a long time and we butt heads sometimes but he treats me like an adult and we split the rent.”

“That’s actually a great idea.” Tim turned to Nancy. “Gillian, move in with me so we can split the rent.”

Nancy just rolled her eyes. “No. I’ve been to your place, I’m pretty sure I saw a rat.”

"That was one time!"

"I hate to break it to you, Tim,” TK interrupted, pausing to make sure the attention was on him. “But one rat is too many rats.”

"Exactly." 

"It wasn't even a rat. It was a mouse,” Tim huffed, folding his arms across his chest as if he had just won the argument.

"That's not any better,” Nancy explained. TK had to nod in agreement. He wasn’t sure how they’d gotten to this subject but at least the topic had nothing to do with his personal life anymore.

"You never know, I might've adopted it and kept it as my pet.” Tim was definitely fighting a losing battle here. TK could’ve told him to take the L and let the conversation switch topics, but it was also the height of comedy to watch his two tipsy coworkers

"Did you?" TK asked.

Tim’s answer was a sheepish “no”.

"If I was going to leave my lovely clean apartment to stay with a coworker, I would pick TK over you,” Nancy explained.

TK gave her a smile. "I'm honoured." 

"As you should be, I'm a delight," Nancy snickered, raising her glass in the motion of a toast as she nestled against the back of the booth. 

“I don’t doubt that.” 

“She would be a terrible roommate. She can be very mean," Tim said.

TK blinked slowly, hopefully conveying his disappointment. “Because you have rats.”

“That was one time!” Tim objected.

"What was one time? Nevermind, I probably don’t want to know. But I brought drinks!" Michelle cheered as she returned to their table, setting down a bunch of glasses. 

TK gave her a tight-lipped smile and pushed the drink she set in front of him towards Tim. "None for me, thanks."

"He's the responsible one," Nancy explained.

"Loosen up a little, you did good today," Michelle offered her own drink.

"I'd rather not." 

"Suit yourself." Michelle downed her drink with not even a hint of hesitation. Tim and Nancy gave her cheers and applause.

"You go, Cap!" Nancy chimed, polishing off her own glass. 

As much as TK wanted to collect all kinds of blackmail material to use against his coworkers in future, the atmosphere was getting a little thick and there was an itch under his skin he couldn't get to. With a half-hearted smile he excused himself, "Hey guys, I should go check in on my dad. Y'know, make sure he hasn't died of alcohol poisoning." 

"That's probably a good idea, he thought he could out-drink the master," Michelle explained with a sly grin. She was far too proud of herself.

"Rookie mistake," Nancy explained 

“Well, have fun you guys. Stay safe and drink responsibly.” With that, TK began to make his way across the bar to the ever-rowdy cluster of firefighters. They seemed to be having a good time, there was a lot of laughter and as soon as TK got close enough, he found himself yanked into Judd’s side.

“Hey, kid.”

TK smiled at the affectionate gesture. “Hey, cowboy.”

“To the future of the 126, and the memory of the old,” Owen said, raising his glass. “Cheers!”

The rest of the 126 joined him in the toast. “Cheers,” they parroted, nodding their own drinks in their captain’s direction. TK smiled lightly as he ducked from Judd’s side and edged past the quickly dispersing firefighters, pulling out a chair and plopping down next to his father.

Owen was the first to speak, leaning towards TK as if to form their own little bubble that blocked out the bustling and babbling of the rest of the bar. “How are you doing?” 

“I’m okay,” TK replied, staring at the vortex forming as the straw in his mineral water spiralled with the drag of his fingers.

Owen’s tone carried a little more weight when he next spoke. “Really. Do I need to be worried about you?”

TK just shrugged. “No; I’m drinking mineral water.”

“How’d your AA meeting go today?”

“Apparently, they’re way hipper in Austin than in New York, so I actually really liked it.” There was something a lot more informal about the meeting TK had attended when compared to the stiff atmosphere present in his regular meetings in New York. There was also a nice change of pace in being able to just sit back and listen to people talk. “Thanks for bringing us down here. I really like the crew and I like that I get to start something new with you. I think we’re gonna be just okay.”

Initially, TK had found himself riddled with guilt that his father had packed up everything and taken TK with him halfway across the country because he felt that he couldn’t trust TK with his own safety enough to not live in the same city. 

Once TK got over the initial off-kilter feeling of Texas, being away from his usual team, and living with his father again at twenty-six, he began to feel a lot more at ease in the change. He even found himself enjoying the ways that Austin wasn’t New York, as much as he had only ever called New York his home, it had its flaws and Austin made up for the lack of homeliness with it’s own unique charms. Like cowboy hats and line dancing. Neither of which TK was particularly fond of, but Owen had taken to like a fish to water.

“Look, TK,” Owen started, a weird seriousness coming over his expression, if only briefly.

“Dad?”

“I just love you.”

Smiling, TK rested his head on his dad’s shoulder. “Love you too.”

It wasn’t long before Michelle joined them with a sinister grin as an announcement about a line dance rang through the air. "Captain Strand, shall we?"

Owen laughed, surprised that she offered, "Oh no no no. You do not want to see me line dance."

But Michelle rarely backs down and both of the captains seemed to have a competitive energy between them. She set her shoulders back and gave Owen a grin that was nothing short of cocky. "Are you shy? I thought you weren't afraid of anything"

“Go,” TK urged, pushing his dad in Michelle’s direction. “I’ll be fine.”

“I won't be long,” Owen promised as Michelle all but dragged him to the dance floor, looking nothing short of proud of herself. 

Honestly, TK had been completely satisfied watching the 126 get into their line dancing. Marjan and Paul got completely baffled by the steps, Judd watching Grace with nothing but adoration in his eyes, and of course, his dad and Michelle getting a little too competitive. He didn’t even notice that Carlos wasn’t with them until there was movement next to him.

“Hey.”

TK was caught off-guard for a moment, stunned by Carlos’ presence. He was trying very hard to not dwell on how the light curved around the plains of Carlos’ face or the way his shirt was way too tight to leave anything up to the imagination as TK’s gaze swept over the firefighter. 

“Hey,” he offered, it was a little more shaky and unsure than he had hoped, so he rolled his shoulders back and lifted his head in an attempt to seem more aloof. 

“Do you wanna dance?” Carlos asked, leaning towards TK as he rocked on his feet.

“Yeah.”

🚑

It took TK a moment to process the noise that ripped through his core with vicious force. He watched the flock of birds rapidly flee from a nearby tree and the way Michelle’s posture stiffened. 

A gunshot. 

TK was used to the anxiety that came with watching his father stride headlong into danger, not knowing if he’d walk back out again. But there was something extra this time. Where he usually just held his breath and waited for news, his heart thudded to a standstill. 

It was supposed to be a straightforward apartment complex evacuation. With the amount of gas, the sooner everyone was safe, the better. They were one spark away from disaster, so TK had a hard time reigning in his anxiety.

It wasn’t just his dad in there that he was afraid for. As much as he tried to ignore it or brush it off, he couldn’t help the fondness he held for Carlos. From the first night they met, there was something magnetic drawing TK to the firefighter. But like two stars orbiting each other, they spun in circles, a constant push and pull, an arms-length apart they stayed. 

“Cap-” he started.

She cut him off, “I know. But we don’t know if anyone was hit. Don’t freak out on me just yet.” 

But TK saw the way her fingers scratched at the hem of her pants. Sometimes, after a long shift, Michelle just crumbled. TK had sat with her many nights, rubbing circles on her back as her shoulders shook with sobs. That was how TK found out about Michelle’s sister, Iris, who had been missing for three years. 

He’d heard all about Iris. How she was a ball of energy, how she was studying to become a doctor, how her ex had probably been the one to kill her. It was rough on Michelle, regardless of how well she tried to keep a calm and professional facade around TK. He never minded sitting with her after a particularly long or hard shift. He enjoyed the company. 

Among spiels about how lovely Iris was, and how much Michelle thought she and TK would get along, she confessed how important Carlos was to her. 

Originally, Carlos had been Iris’ friend, but they became an inseparable trio in no time. They shared a lot of memories, years of friendship. And when Iris disappeared, it became just the two of them. 

“Carlos is like my baby brother. He’s my family,” Michelle had whispered into the crook of TK’s neck as they witnessed the creeping of the sun over the horizon. 

Carlos was important to her. Michelle downplayed it by joking about setting TK up with him. Which in itself was surprising, with how deeply she cared for the firefighter, TK wouldn’t have considered himself even close to what Carlos deserved or within what Michelle thought he deserved. It spoke a lot about how much she trusted TK to be good for Carlos. 

She was just as worried as he was, she was just better at hiding it.

TK didn’t want to hurt Carlos. That's why he laughed off Michelle’s attempts of setting the two of them up. He couldn’t do that to Carlos.

“I don’t think anyone’s been hit. We would’ve heard by now if anyone was down. It was probably just a scared homeowner firing a warning shot. APD will secure the weapon, just because it went off doesn’t mean anyone’s been hurt. You can relax, TK.”

“I need to see that they’re okay.” 

If Michelle noticed the plural, she didn’t give anything away. “And you will, just give them a few minutes.”

TK was reminded of the night he met Carlos. The way Michelle had joked around with the two of them on the way to the hospital, the atmosphere had been so light and everyone was at ease. But after the hand-off, the facade crumbled. 

It was so easy to take Michelle’s professional persona at its face value. She was always calm and collected in the field and presented as if it never got to her. But it did. Certain calls lived under her skin, rent-free, forever. 

The few heart-stopping moments when Judd told her that her best friend was currently loaded in the back of an ambulance at the scene of a vicious car pile-up. There were so many casualties that night, and Carlos could’ve easily been one of them.

TK had taken her shaking hands in his and reassured her even as she tried to apologise for making a fuss. 

It wasn’t long before they could see Carlos and Judd vacating one of the apartments and making their way back to the truck. There was an expression on Judd’s face that TK noticed as soon as the pair were close enough, it was the one his father often gave him when he was masking his anger with worry. 

But they both looked completely unharmed.

Michelle was on her feet before TK even thought to move. In a couple strides, she had her arms around Carlos. “Don’t do that to me again.”

“I’m fine, you don’t have to worry,” Carlos promised her as she began checking him over for injuries. He seemed fine, and Michelle clearly trusted him enough to take his word for it, the tension bleeding from her shoulders.

“Are you sure?” She asked, satisfied with Carlos’ nod in response.

TK felt like he was encroaching on a private moment. Like he wasn’t meant to hear that, that those words were meant to be shared between the two of them only. 

"Hey, 'Chelle, I need you over here,” Nancy said, waving Michelle over. With another once-over in Carlos’ direction, she quickly followed Nancy, already asking a bunch of questions.

TK moved to follow but Judd stopped him and nodded his head towards Carlos who awkwardly shifted his weight between each foot. 

"Reyes got shot."

Spinning on the heel of his foot, TK whirled to face Carlos. "You _what?"_

Carlos shrugged. "It's just a scratch. The bullet barely grazed me."

"Let me see," TK pressed.

"It's fine, TK."

"You're hurt. It's not fine. Show me."

TK pushed Carlos towards the ambulance, where the firefighter sat down on the edge of the floor and shrugged off his turnout coat. 

The first thing TK noticed were the ribbons of crimson winding their way down Carlos' arm, dipping and curving around the sculpt of his muscles.

Carlos’ eyes were wide as he processed what he was looking at. "Huh. It looks worse than I thought."

TK's eyes trailed up to meet the wound itself, a short cut about halfway up Carlos' bicep, no more than two inches long but bleeding steadily. "No kidding." 

As TK pulled on some gloves, he began adjusting Carlos' arm to get a better look at the wound. 

He had one knee on the floor of the ambulance and the other foot on the concrete, but Carlos swung his legs back and forth like a bored child on a bench that was too high for them to touch the ground.

“It’s not deep, just a graze. It’s likely only bled so much because you refused to stop using your arm after being shot,” TK explained.

“Hey,” Carlos pouted. TK tried not to let his gaze linger on Carlos’ mouth for a second too long as he quickly pondered the consequences of kissing the firefighter in that moment. “I had to help evacuate a nice grandpa’s cats, and Mateo is allergic.”

“You should’ve come right here when you were shot. There are no excuses.”

Carlos shrugged, only to wince at the movement. TK had to resist the urge to smack the back of his head. “I didn’t really feel it. I only noticed when I felt the blood running down my arm. Then Judd proceeded to scold me as he practically dragged me down here.”

“Remind me to buy Judd something to eat later as thanks for taking care of your dumb ass.”

“He’s probably going to insist on it.”

“Probably.” TK examined the wound, giving satisfactory hum when he deemed it not big nor deep enough to warrant stitches. “Did you get shot just to make tonight interesting? Or did Mateo say it was quiet tonight?”

“It’s not a party until someone almost dies.”

“You call this almost dying? Gotta up your game, Reyes.”

“I got shot,” Carlos protested, furrowing his eyebrows and pouting.

TK rolled his eyes but he couldn’t help his smile. “Barely.”

“You’re rude, can I get a different paramedic?”

TK clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Nope. You’re stuck with me.”

“Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

Carlos rolled his eyes, twisting away from TK’s reach. “Now you’re just being dramatic.”

“I’m not. I’m pretty sure I _explicitly_ asked that you stay out of my ambulance,” TK said as he grabbed Carlos’ arm and held him in place.

“I’m not in it.”

TK rolled his eyes and tapped the floor of the ambulance that Carlos was currently sitting on. “Yeah, you are.”

Looking up briefly from the wound, TK’s heart caught in his throat as his eyes met Carlos’ curious gaze. 

“Hey,” Carlos whispered with a soft smile.

It took a few seconds for TK’s brain to resume functioning so he could stop staring at Carlos like a stunned mullet. “Hi.”

He blinked a little to clear his thoughts as he pulled away from Carlos and drew his attention back to the task at hand. 

“Tell me a secret,” Carlos said softly, as if he were afraid to share those words with the air outside of the few inches between them.

TK looked up briefly before focusing again. “What kind of secret?” 

“Anything.”

“I have my phone on silent at all times. Doesn’t matter who you are, unless you’re my dad,” TK confessed. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was sharing this with Carlos, there was just something about the firefighter that made him want to tear down all the walls he had built around himself as a means of protection. “I always answer when he calls. What about you? Tell me a secret.”

“I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you,” Carlos said in an exaggerated deep voice.

TK would’ve dramatically clutched his chest if not for the fact that his gloves were dirty. “Carlos, you’re breaking my heart.”

Carlos made a startled noise in his throat. TK pretended not to notice.

TK pulled his tongue ring between his teeth like he had so many times before, running the ball along his bottom lip as he filled a syringe with saline and began cleaning the wound. It helped him focus.

As the blood was flushed from the graze and rose-tinted liquid ran down into a wad of cotton TK pressed against Carlos’ skin a few inches below the wound, the firefighter fidgeted and TK shot him a glare. 

"What's that?" he asked.

TK pulled his attention back up to Carlos, a soft clink as the ball knocked on his teeth. "What's what?"

"You have a tongue piercing."

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” TK poked his tongue out with a grin. 

“Interesting choice,” Carlos mumbled, avoiding eye contact with TK.

Well, TK usually wasn’t one to judge, but the atmosphere was definitely thick with awkwardness. Which was unusual. He often found that conversations between him and Carlos followed with ease, but lately there had been a weird friction to it. 

Ever since they had danced together. 

It had been a harmless shared moment between them. Carlos laughed at TK who hadn’t a clue how to line dance, very much unlike his father who seemed to be enjoying his time with Michelle, not falling a single step behind. 

Eventually, after multiple attempts on Carlos’ part to dance properly, TK had resorted to making it up as he went along. He was too much of a city boy, but Carlos didn’t seem to mind. Carlos followed suit, and amongst a bunch of rowdy Texans do-si-doing on the dance floor, they shared smiles and shimmies, just having fun basked under the lights.

TK tried not to feel hurt by the weird turn their friendship had taken. If you could even call it that. Lately Carlos seemed to take any opportunity to be as far away from TK as possible, and it stung. Sure, they spent a lot of their time together filled with teasing and a less than ideal amount of medical supplies, but now that he was without it, TK found himself craving the ability to just throw himself onto the couch next to Carlos and talk his ear off. 

He thought they were well on their way to becoming friends. Apparently he was wrong.

“We gotta stop doing this,” TK stated, breaking the silence between them.

Carlos seemed caught off-guard. “What?”

“You getting hurt,” TK explained, trying his best to seem nonchalant as he taped a piece of gauze to Carlos’ bicep. “You might be the most accident-prone human I’ve ever met.”

“I try not to.”

“Tell me, how’d you manage to get shot? No offense, but you’re the furthest thing from intimidating.” 

“This dude was insistent that I was with ‘the overlords’ and refused to leave his apartment. When I kept trying to get him to leave and entered his apartment he whipped out a gun and shot at me. Not one of my better nights on the job.”

“You don’t like getting shot?”

“Not really, no.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Tell me about it.”

TK worked in silence, wiping the drying blood on Carlos’ arm.

“TK?” Carlos asked.

He didn’t look up from what he was doing. “Hmm?”

“Why did you move to Texas?”

“I told you, less light pollution. I like to see the stars.”

“Why did you really come here?”

TK sucked in an anxious breath, taking a few seconds to calm his nerves. “I had a breakup, a pretty bad one. Things kinda blew up in my face. It was around the time my dad got the job offer, so we packed up our city lives and came here. It’s nice to get out of the city sometimes, it has the tendency to feel a little suffocating.”

“I’m sorry that had to happen to you.”

Carlos sounded really genuine, but tonight was not going to be the night that TK spilled his soul and left it bare for everyone to see. He’d worked too hard to let anyone see how broken he was. Sometimes TK felt like there was just a mess of shattered pieces and jagged edges lying rightunder his skin and if he tried to hold onto anything too tightly, the shards would break through and everyone else would know the truth. He couldn’t handle that.

“It’s okay,” he said, shrugging as if he were talking about the weather. “I’m making my peace with it.”

“I mean it, TK. You deserve better, I hope things work out for you.”

TK’s gaze flickered up to catch Carlos’ dark eyes. Their faces were much closer than he had anticipated, Carlos’ warm breath fanning over his skin.

TK found himself at a precipice, wind in his hair and salt on his tongue. Rain battered his frame, the ground was unsteady under his feet. All he could do was stare down the cliff’s face.

Before TK’s common sense could catch up with him, to pull him back from the edge, TK was in freefall. His lips collided with Carlos’. 

Carlos’ hand came up to twist in TK’s hair, pulling him closer before TK could even think to pull away. Not that he really wanted to. 

The fact that they were locking lips in the middle of a shift did that for them. There was the unmistakable roar of an explosion that TK felt in his bones and a wave of heat met his skin. He and Carlos stumbled apart, but rather than dwelling on how much he would’ve liked the moment to last, they were both already on their feet, ready to help.

“Be careful,” TK called over the now hectic atmosphere before Carlos could get too far, the firefighter meeting his eyes for a brief moment and offering a sharp nod.

🚑

TK doesn’t quite know how they got to this point. 

He tripped over his own feet, his hand still latched in Carlos’ as the firefighter’s feet caught on a broom that clattered to the floor. The door to the supply closet was much quieter as it fell shut behind them.

“You’re very good at that,” Carlos panted, pulling his hand from TK’s grip to run it through his curls.

TK pressed his back against the wall, laughing breathlessly. “You’re welcome.” 

It was definitely unprofessional for them to be sneaking around the firehouse like this, as if they were a couple of teenagers trying not to get caught. But TK liked the thrill of it, the spontaneity of being able to pull Carlos around a corner and share a kiss. 

As it turns out, Michelle’s attempts at setting them up were not misplaced. Even if she didn’t quite know that yet.

“Here, let me,” TK said, leaping to his feet. He brushed his fingers through Carlos’ hair, whose curls were in complete disarray. 

Carlos just smiled and pressed a kiss to TK’s forehead as he smoothed down the paramedic’s collar. “Your shirt is buttoned wrong.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title From: Dark Side of Your Room - All Time Low


End file.
